A CCC “side camp” was maintained in the park during the winter of 1937-38, the enrollees engaging in snow removal from trails, roads, and buildings, interior building maintenance, and general assistance in park work.
During 1937 considerable work was conducted on the Rim Road construction project with PWA funding under the direction of the Bureau of Public Roads. In his annual report for 1937 Superintendent Canfield described the road construction projects then underway:
Two contracts for the grading of 4.9 miles of new Rim Road were underway at the end of the year. These two units extend from Kerr Notch over the higher slopes of Dutton Ridge through Sun Notch to a point near Vidae Falls. This mileage covers a new high line route six to seven hundred feet higher than an old road in use for the past 17 years. The higher elevation opens up scenic areas of the park hitherto inaccessible and provides motorists with much wider panoramas of park and adjoining forest lands. An idea of the difficulty of the project is a rock cut 145 feet from the road gutter to the crest of the bank. Over 70% of the first two mile unit is composed of rock work and is not expected to be completed until the autumn of 1938.
A 12.3 mile unit of the Rim Road from the North Entrance to Cloudcap was rock surfaced during the year and was ready for oil treatment at the end of the year. Two units totaling 3.9 miles from Cloudcap to Kerr Notch were graded and at the end of the period were ready for rock surfacing. Invitations to bid on this job were advertised in June. A contract was to be awarded in July of the new fiscal year. With the present work underway and completed, only a unit of 3.3 miles remained at the end of the year untouched. It leads from Vidae Falls to Park Headquarters. Plans were carried forward to have this unit under contract before the end of the 1937 summer season. It is expected to have the entire rim road completed during the summer of 1939. [35]
In his annual report for 1938 Superintendent Leavitt discussed the beneficial aspects of the public works projects to park development. In particular, he singled out the contributions of the CCC, stating that much “of the work accomplished by CCC labor could otherwise not have been accomplished, or at least not for several years.” Of special interest to Leavitt were the cottages that had been built in the Sleepy Hollow employees’ cabin area. The cabins, according to Leavitt, eliminated “the use of tents and make it possible for employees to move their families in earlier in the spring than was previously possible when dependent on tents for housing.” [36]
The two CCC camps were again established at Annie Spring and Lost Creek during the summer season of 1938 and operated from July 1 to October 15. Throughout the winter of 1938-39 a “spike” camp was maintained in the park. The second floor of the Machine Shop was altered to provide accommodations for the “spike” camp. Among the activities of the enrollees were landscaping, fire motorway, trail, and campground maintenance, fire fighting, fish planting, house construction, interior building improvements, area cleanup, snow removal from trails and buildings, and woodcutting. Included in the landscaping activities of the enrollees were campground improvements, old road obliteration, installation of fifty directional signs, planting around buildings and along roads, and layout of twelve off-road parking areas with landscape treatment.
